T-Mobile has unveiled details of a market-leading tariff for consumers who want access to the internet through mobile phones while overseas, and announced plans that will prevent customers experiencing "bill shock" when they return from travelling.
The cost of using your mobile phone to access the internet is set to fall dramatically across Europe from 1 July following implementation of rules to stop UK mobile providers setting excessive charges.
It means holidaymakers may finally be able to chat to friends on Facebook or watch YouTube on the beach without breaking the bank.
Some consumers have suffered bill shock after unwittingly running-up charges amounting to thousands of pounds while on holiday, after leaving data-hungry smartphone apps running in the background.
Source: consumerchoices.co.uk However, mobile providers are introducing lower roaming charges and deals on data allowances in anticipation of tighter pricing controls.
T-Mobile will allow customers to buy "booster" deals, based on how much data they wish to use, and will completely block overseas internet usage until customers purchase one of the new packages (available from 19 June).
Comparison site Broadband Choices said T-Mobile was the best option for consumers wishing to use the internet briefly, buying 3MB worth of data for just £1 or 33p per MB.
However heavy internet users might find other tariffs cheaper than T-mobile's larger bundles, which are priced at £5 for 20MB and £10 for 50MB (both have time limits).
Three is offering an "all-you-can-eat" tariff, the Euro Internet Pass, for £5, while Vodafone will allow customers to use their existing UK plan overseas for an extra £3 a day.
However Three's Euro Internet Pass will not allow streaming or tethering – where a mobile is linked to a laptop to enable internet access.
For frequent travellers Virgin Mobile's new data passes, available from 25 June2012, are valid for three months or until the data is used up, so there is no need to use all the data allowance within 24 hours. This makes the £3 charge for 5MB or £5 for 10MB reasonably cost effective.
A megabyte of data is equivalent to accessing eight normal web pages or 200 emails without attachments, according to Which?. You would need 10MB to download one music track.
The Guardian has reported on several cases of mobile bill shock in recent weeks, including that of Alexandra Xanthaki, who faced a £2,600 bill after using an iPhone app to find restaurants on a short trip abroad.
Consumers can also end up considerably out of pocket if their phone is stolen. Johan Potgieter, was landed with a £9,000 bill from Orange after thieves stole his phone while he was on holiday in South Africa.
The EU ruling caps charges imposed by UK network providers for overseas roaming.
From 1 July, the cost of data can be no more than €0.70 per MB, plus VAT, which is around 69p. This will then fall to 45 cents plus VAT, around 36p, in July 2013 and 20 cents plus VAT (around 16p) in July 2014 – vastly cheaper than some UK providers' current European rates.
Orange, for example, charges £3.07 per MB if you want to surf the net in Europe, while Three's pre-EU ruling fee is £1.28 per MB.
But some of the new pricing plans are not straightforward , with some only available to contract customers, leaving pay-as-you-go users facing higher costs, while others penalise light internet users.
Dominic Baliszewski from Broadband Choices said: "Even with these new lower costs, charges can quickly rack up. A £3 charge is still a lot if you're only using 1MB to quickly check your emails. A £3 data charge per day will cost £42 if used daily over a two week trip."
The EU rule does not affect the prices providers can charge for data roaming outside the European Union but from 1 July, people travelling further afield will at least get a warning text message, email or pop-up window from their mobile provider when they are nearing €50 of data downloads, or their pre-agreed level. Consumers will then have to confirm they are happy to go over this level in order to continue their data roaming.
Motorola slider Sprint bound spotted with Android ICS - Phones Review
We get quite used to seeing various leaks leading up to the release of the next version of the Apple iPhone, and we also saw a similar situation leading up to the recent launch of the latest Android flagship smartphone from Samsung, but that is not to say other lower end handsets don’t regularly get leaked. Today we have news of a Motorola QWERTY slider that is bound for Sprint being leaked seemingly running Android ICS 4.0.
Only last week we told you about an upcoming QWERTY slider device by Samsung that was heading to T-Mobile, and now as Android Central are reporting a handset is currently in the works that also features a QWERTY slider keyboard, and is heading to rival carrier Sprint via Motorola. The image that can be seen below is all that is basically known about the handset at this present time.
What can be seen though is that there is a keyboard with five rows of staggered keys, and dedicated arrow buttons. It is also believed that the upcoming handset will feature a qHD display, and it can be seen there is the Sprint Music app pre-installed.
Of course while the list of specifications for the handset is remaining thin on the ground everything else is just guess work. There is a good chance the device will be LTE compatible, and it is wondered if the handset will finally see a device from Motorola that is powered by Intel. The two companies back at the beginning of the year announced they would provide a number of handsets due for release this coming fall.
It can also be seen in the image that apart from the QWERTY keyboard, there are no other physical keys so it will use virtual buttons on the screen for home and multitasking, which is a different move that we have seen recently from the likes of Samsung and LG. This hints that the device will be using the Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system at launch, and is the way that Google originally wanted for its new software when it was first announced.
Are you a Sprint customer who likes the idea of a physical keyboard?
T-Mobile introduces travel boosters for internet browsing anywhere in the world - Pocket-lint.com
T-Mobile customers can now stay online while on their holidays anywhere in the world this summer. The operator has introduced its Internet and Broadband Travel Boosters that start from as little as 1.
Operators have been facing continual pressure from consumers and watchdogs to slash their call and internet roaming rates.
Both Three and Vodafone recently announced their Euro Internet Pass and EuroTraveller schemes respectively, but T-Mobile’s offering is the first of its kind to cover the entire world.
Each time a customer logs on to the net via their smartphone or mobile broadband device while abroad, they will immediately be redirected to a web page where they can buy a booster that will prevent them from racking up pounds on their bill.
Deals start from as low as 1 (3MB in Europe) but can reach as much as 280 (50MB for the likes of Qatar, Cuba and Brazil).
T-Mobile’s Internet and Broadband Travel Boosters are available from 19 June, with the cost either being added to a customers pay monthly bill or deducted from PAYG customer’s credit.
Will you be buying a T-Mobile Internet & Broadband Travel Booster this summer? Let us know in the comments below.
Motorola Solutions buys London-based Psion for $200m - Computer Weekly
Hardware
PC, Servers, Storage, Data centre, Mobile, Networking, Chips & processors, Printers
Enterprise software
Operating systems, Open source, Windows, Developer, Mobile, Database, Business applications, SOA, Web, Middleware, BI, Virtualisation, Collaboration, Licensing
IT services
Outsourcing, Consultancy, Hosting, Cloud, Offshore, Startups
No comments:
Post a Comment